Failing Indianapolis Colts host Carolina Panther for Week 12 Sunday game – NFL Preview
The Indianapolis Colts will be trying to avoid their eleventh straight loss as they host Carolina Panthers this Sunday.
In case of losing the game against the Carolina Panthers, the Colts will be making the worst start in 25 years. They have lost 10 consecutive games in a row this season. This includes five home games and five road competitions.
The Colts have total 10 points in last 10 games they have played. They are the only winless team in current regular season of National Football League (NFL), American football's premier league, with total 398 yards. They have managed
to run only one play inside red zone; that too was in their last two games.
Injuries are one of the reasons for them to perform so poorly. Their key player Peyton Manning, who was the main force behind them in their last season, has been ruled out of this season due to a career threatening neck injury.
He had been replaced by Kerry Collins who was signed by the Colts in a $4 million deal. He, however, suffered a concussion injury in third week. He has been declared out for rest of this season.
The Colts now have brought Curtis Painter to start at quarterback position. He has made seven starts consecutively, but lost all of them. His poor performance has triggered criticism and questions about his placement at quarterback
position. There is a pressure on their coach to not to allow him to continue to start.
Colts coach Jim Caldwell, however, has ruled out any change at quarterback position. He said that Painter will be available this Sunday game for his eighth consecutive start.
According to the coach, Painter had not been given enough opportunities to play at quarterback position. "Curtis has not played a whole lot of football around here for us, and I think he needs to be given a good, clean opportunity,"
Caldwell said. "A lot of things happened out there that I don't think were his fault. I just don't feel like he's gotten a clear opportunity to do that yet, so I want to give him that opportunity."
Meanwhile, Carolina Panthers are no different from the Colts. They are 2-8 after having played their ten games in the current season, almost similar to their last year's position. They finished 2010 season at 2-14.
The game is also an important for Panthers, who will be looking to avoid losing. In case of a loss, Panthers will end a franchise record of losing 12 consecutive games on road.
One of the main problems with the Panthers is that they cannot sustain their first half's good performance till end of a match. After having pulled off a good show in earlier part of a game, they go completely down in the later
part. They were outscored 8-35 in their last game's second half against Detroit Lions last week. They, however, finished the game at 35-49 loss. This depicts two sides of their game, and they have been consistently facing this problem, starting from the game
one.
"You play the second half the way we did, you're going to get beat," Coach Ron Rivera said. His team has already established a record of allowing 29 first downs, and conceding 495 yards.
Keeping in view of their performance, the Indianapolis Colts and Carolina Panthers are described as two teams with same characteristics. Both are desperate for wins.
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